The fan-made, freely distributed, Capcom-backed mashup Street Fighter X Mega Man has crossed one million downloads, according to the game's creator, Seow Zong Hui. If it were to be counted as a full retail release, it would be only the fifth entry in the Mega Man franchise to achieve platinum status.

You can view this news two different ways depending on your level of optimism. On one hand, it could prove that there is still a sizable fanbase jonesing for more Mega Man goodness. On the other hand, it took a free game nearly three months to hit a target that certain paid games hit in much less time.

Back when SF X MM was first revealed, Capcom Senior VP Christian Svenesson said, "[I]f we get a million downloads of [Street Fighter X Mega Man], and certainly I think that's the floor I hope to see -- it's free, it should hopefully do more than that! -- that just helps raise awareness for the brand across the board and creates fertile ground for things to happen regardless of which direction that it kind of comes in." He seems to consider a million as the lowest acceptable performance, but I suppose there's still room for growth as long as the downloads remain active.

Might as well give the experiment a thumbs up, regardless. Let's see if this translates into a renewed effort on Capcom's behalf.